This intimate portrayal of the friendship between two icons of twentieth-century poetry, Czeslaw Milosz and Joseph Brodsky, highlights the parallel lives of the poets as exiles living in America and Nobel Prize laureates in literature. To create this truly original work, Irena Grudzinska Gross draws from poems, essays, letters, interviews, speeches, lectures, and her own personal memories as a confidant of both Milosz and Brodsky. The dual portrait of these poets and the elucidation of their attitudes toward religion, history, memory, and language throw a new light on the upheavals of the twentieth-century. Gross also incorporates notes on both poets' relationships to other key literary figures, such as W. H. Auden, Susan Sontag, Seamus Heaney, Mark Strand, Robert Haas, and Derek Walcott.

"Las obras de arte siempre han sido de una infinita soledad. El verso de Dante, la prosa de Dostoiewsky jamas pueden ser comprendidas sino en la soledad del espiritu, en la meditacion profunda que cada frase contiene y en la belleza que los propios idiomas proporcionan a quien sabe expresarse con elegancia y dignidad. La obra de arte solo es posible en la infinita soledad, porque es la manifestacion pura y diafana del espiritu humano, de ese y de esos otros que se llaman Juan Sebastian Bach, Victor hugo o Enrique Heine. De ese y de esos otros que fueron Miguel Angel y Bernini, Tiziano y Rembrandt, Lucca Della Robbia y Durero. Un mundo de seres solitarios y siempre atentos a lo mas profundo de su alma." Dr. Adalberto Garcia de Mendoza

This is an original, full length biography of Britain's first twentieth-century black feminist - Una Marson - poet, playwright, and social activist and BBC broadcaster. Una Marson is recognised today as the first major woman poet of the Caribbean and as a significant forerunner of contemporary black writers; her story throws light on the problems facing politicised black artists. In challenging definitions of 'race' and 'gender' in her political and creative work, she forged a valiant path for later black feminists. Her enormous social and cultural contributions to the Caribbean and Britain have, until now, remained hidden in archives and memoirs around the world. Based on extensive research and oral testimony, this biography embraces postcolonial realities and promise, and is a major contribution to British cultural history. -- .

With an introduction by Simon Callow Judgements about the quality of works of art begin in opinion. But for the last two hundred years only the wilfully perverse (and Tolstoy) have denied the validity of the opinion that Shakespeare was a genius. Who was Shakespeare? Why has his writing endured? And what makes it so endlessly adaptable to different times and cultures? Exploring Shakespeare's life, including questions of authorship and autobiography, and charting how his legacy has grown over the centuries, this extraordinary book asks how Shakespeare has come to be such a powerful symbol of genius. Written with lively passion and wit, The Genius of Shakespeare is a fascinating biography of the life - and afterlife - of our greatest poet. Jonathan Bate, one of the world's leading Shakespearean scholars, has shown how the legend of Shakespeare's genius was created and sustained, and how the man himself became a truly global phenomenon. 'The best modern book on Shakespeare' Sir Peter Hall

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2019 'This is a book of wonders' Sunday Times 'Spellbinding and intelligent' Financial Times 'Extraordinary and engrossing' Spectator It was the most extraordinary year. In a book brimming with poetry and nature writing, biography and adventure, Adam Nicolson walks in the footsteps of Coleridge, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy during the months in the late 1790s they spent together in the Quantock Hills. Out of it came The Ancient Mariner, 'Kubla Khan', Lyrical Ballads and 'Tintern Abbey'; Coleridge's unmatched hymns to friendship and fatherhood; Wordsworth's revolutionary verses and paeans to the unity of soul and cosmos, love and understanding. In short, a poetry that sought to remake the world.

The Final Test - A Biography of James Ball Naylor, is about one of the most well known men in the country at the turn of the twentieth century, who has since faded into obscurity. A country doctor exceptionally gifted with natural ability, Naylor's passion for writing led to his greatest success as the author of a 1901 best seller. He wrote poetry, short stories, historical and other novels, and became well known as an entertainer and speaker on the Lyceum and Chautauqua Circuits, as well as a political force both as a candidate and a newspaper columnist. His contributions and accomplishment as an educator, writer, poet, public speaker, entertainer, public servant, and politician were numerous. His involvement in politics brought him more than passing friendships with local and national politicians, including Warren G. Harding, whom he knew from their earliest days in politics. This association led to Naylor's thirteen-year stint as a columnist for the Marion Star, but his staunch support of Harding in the face of the scandals after Harding's death affected Naylor's reputation as well. This is an inspiring story of a remarkable man with strong moral character and integrity who was dedicated to his family and to helping others in his profession as a physician. The Final Test A Biography of James Ball Naylor was a FINALIST in the Biography-Historical category in the 2011 National INDIE Excellence Awards.

‘I walked in a daze of illusions toward my future.’

Deeply felt and told with an intrepid spirit, Tales from the Heart are the intimate, formative stories from the childhood of the legendary Caribbean writer, Maryse Condé.

These affecting vignettes follow Condé’s early encounters with love, grief, friendship, as she navigates the pernicious legacy of slavery and colonialism in her home of Guadeloupe and as a student in Paris.

The definitive biography of Frank O'Hara, one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century, the magnetic literary figure at the center of New York's cultural life during the 1950s and 1960s.

City Poet captures the excitement and promise of mid-twentieth-century New York in the years when it became the epicenter of the art world, and illuminates the poet and artist at its heart. Brad Gooch traces Frank O'Hara's life from his parochial Catholic childhood to World War II, through his years at Harvard and New York. He brilliantly portrays O'Hara in in his element, surrounded by a circle of writers and artists who would transform America's cultural landscape: Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones, and John Ashbery.

Gooch brings into focus the artistry and influence of a life "of guts and wit and style and passion" (Luc Sante) that was tragically abbreviated in 1966 when O'Hara, just forty and at the height of his creativity, was hit and killed by a jeep on the beach at Fire Island--a death that marked the end of an exceptional career and a remarkable era.

City Poet is illustrated with 55 black and white photographs.

In 1914, H. Rider Haggardadventure novelist, diplomat, farmer, lawyer, and, above all, renowned author of such classic and influential bestsellers as King Solomon's Mines and Shereturned to South Africa, the country that had fired his literary imagination, for the first time in a quarter century.

Haggard, whose work is today considered a prototype of colonial literature, barely recognized the Africa of his youth. The discovery of gold, the destruction of the Zulu kingdom, and the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer war had all radically transformed the political, cultural, and often physical landscape.

No longer the diehard imperialist of his youth, when conquest and colonization were the order of the day, Haggard toured southern Africa extensively during this trip, acquiring an impression of black politics and even meeting the first president of the African National Congress, John Dube. This is the chronicle, in Haggard's own hand, of that journey.

A remarkable literary find, written by a man who helped shape Western perceptions of Africa, this hitherto unpublished manuscript presents a portrait both surprising and in some ways familiar of Africa and of a central figure in the literature of African colonialism.

Written by a close friend of the subjects, Echoes from a Cornish Cliff is the heart-warming, true story of two pioneers of the The Good Life - Jean and Derek Tangye - who left glittering London careers and privileged lifestyles to take on the challenge of a derelict cottage and six scrubby, moorland acres on the edge of a cliff in west Cornwall, almost half a century before the idea became "fashionable". From an unpromising beginning they carved a cosy, self-sufficient home and productive market garden and in 1961, eleven years after taking up residence, Derek Tangye wrote the first of his best-selling Minack Chronicles, beautifully illustrated by his wife, Jean. Their dedication, fortitude and courage in the face of countless setbacks and financial disasters never wavered and they unlocked the secret of true happiness by being close to nature and taking pleasure in very simple things - the true values of life. You may already live in a rural area, or plan to escape to the country, or perhaps you have an interest in nature conservation or a self-sufficient lifestyle. You may simply care about Britain's beautiful natural landscape and wildlife. If you answer "yes" to any of the above, this book is for you.

This work is the first academic biography of North Carolina poet laureate James Larkin Pearson (1879-1981). Using material from Pearson's personal archive in Wilkes County, from the North Carolina Collection and the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and from contemporary examinations of his life and work, this study offers deeply personal insights into his life and provides extensive examinations of his hopes, joys, fears, pains, and sorrows. The work also includes lengthy studies of his poetry and his journalistic efforts and examines their place within the larger cultural milieu. In the process, the book addresses two themes that become apparent in Pearson's life and work: his Tar Heel spirit and his individualism. He was a fighter who overcame poverty, a poor education, personal tragedies, and professional neglect to achieve great success. He also abided by his own set of religious, artistic, and political values regardless of the consequences. This work thus offers the first personal and professional examination of James Larkin Pearson, provides insights on North Carolina and its people, and examines the benefits and drawbacks of following one's own path.

Maurine Whipple, author f what some critics consider Mormonism'a greatest novel, The Giant Joshua, is an enigma. Her prize-winning novel has never been out of print, and its portrayal of the founding of St. George draws on her own family history to produce its unforgettable and candid portrait of plural marriage's challenges. Yet Maurine's life is full of contradictions and unanswered questions, Veda Tebbs Hale, a personal friend of the paradoxical novelist, answers these questions with sympathy and tact, nailing each insight down with thorough research in Whipple's vast but under-utilized collected papers.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE FINALIST

'...And then we heard the rain falling, and that was the drops of blood falling; and when we came to get the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.' Harriet Tubman

Jesmyn Ward's acclaimed memoir shines a light on the community she comes from, in the small town of DeLisle, Mississippi, a place of quiet beauty and fierce attachment. Here, in the space of four years, she lost five young men dear to her, including her beloved brother - to accidents, murder and suicide. Their deaths were seemingly unconnected, yet their lives had been connected, by identity and place, and as Jesmyn dealt with these losses, she came to a staggering truth: These young men died because of who they were and the place they were from, because racism and economic struggle breed a certain kind of bad luck.

The agonising reality brought Jesmyn to write, at last, their true stories and her own.

Men We Reaped opens up a parallel universe, yet it points to problems whose roots are woven into the soil under all our feet. This indispensable American memoir is destined to become a classic.

Mary Shelley was brought up by her father in a house filled with radical thinkers, poets, philosophers and writers of the day. Aged sixteen, she eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley, embarking on a relationship that was lived on the move across Britain and Europe, as she coped with debt, infidelity and the deaths of three children, before early widowhood changed her life forever. Most astonishingly, it was while she was still a teenager that Mary composed her canonical novel Frankenstein, creating two of our most enduring archetypes today.

The life story is well-known. But who was the woman who lived it? She's left plenty of evidence, and in this fascinating dialogue with the past, Fiona Sampson sifts through letters, diaries and records to find the real woman behind the story. She uncovers a complex, generous character - friend, intellectual, lover and mother - trying to fulfil her own passionate commitment to writing at a time when to be a woman writer was an extraordinary and costly anomaly.

Published for the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein, this is a major new work of biography by a prize-winning writer and poet.

Reinhardt owned""The Bodley Head from 1957 to 1987, and smaller publishers like The Nonesuch Press and Reinhardt Books. This account of his life contains stories about his authors, among them Graham Greene, G.B. Shaw, Charlie Chaplin and his actor friends, illuminating the trajectory of British publishing in the second half of the twentieth century.

Ever since the first edition of Thomas Ligotti's 'Songs of a Dead Dreamer' appeared in 1985, it was clear that here was an author of extraordinary brilliance and originality. In following years there has been a great deal of interest in the author and his works, although, until now, articles about him have mostly been scattered in obscure journals. Now, at last, here is a book about him, a symposium of explorations and examinations of the Ligottian universe by such leading critics as S.T. Joshi, Stefan Dzimianowicz, Robert M. Price. With a complete, up-to-date bibliography of Ligotti's work, two interviews with him, and even a fascinating essay by Ligotti himself.

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

Hero Martyr Poet
The inspiring story of a remarkable life cut short.

I don t think Hannah wanted to die for the sake of having her memory exalted in history or to prove herself equal to a romantic image she conceived for herself. Her purpose wasn t to die. She died for her life s purpose. U.S. Senator John McCain, in "Why Courage Matters"

Hannah Senesh, poet and Israel s national heroine, has come to be seen as a symbol of Jewish heroism. Safe in Palestine during World War II, she volunteered for a mission to help rescue fellow Jews in her native Hungary. She was captured by the Nazis, endured imprisonment and torture, and was finally executed at the age of twenty-three.

Like Anne Frank, she kept a diary from the time she was thirteen. This new edition brings together not only the widely read and cherished diary, but many of Hannah s poems and letters, memoirs written by Hannah s mother, accounts by parachutists who accompanied Hannah on her fateful mission, and insightful material not previously published in English.

Described by a fellow parachutist as a spiritual girl guided almost by mysticism, Hannah s life has something of value to teach everyone. Now the subject of a feature-length documentary, Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, Hannah s words and actions will inspire people from each generation to follow their own inner voices, just as she followed hers.